disney princess

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daughter-mother relationships, with the mature adversary acting as a wicked maternal substitute, simultaneously erasing the mother and replacing her with a negative image' (Do Rozario, 2004, p.41). This could suggest that once the evil femme fatale has been stripped of her powers, her importance is reduced and a prince has substituted her in the princesses’ life. This results in the princess still being passive but now under the control of a prince rather than the powerful evil stepmother. To juxtapose the Wicked Queens tall and mighty appearance, Snow White has a slim, hourglass figure with pale skin and a petite frame. Alike, the contrast between Cinderella and Aurora compared to their evil other further enhances the good versus evil message that allows the audience to side with good over evil. Cinderella and Aurora are both portrayed as beautiful women with small waists who are kind, good mannered and innocent who passively accept their fate. It could be argued that in Disney’s first era of films women are seen as objects rather than human beings. As mentioned, the female protagonist awaits her fate from the prince to live a happy ending. This promotes that women do not need to fend for themselves due to someone coming to rescue them, enforcing a powerless stereotype. ‘Since women were leading the war effort at home and managing entire households and companies on their own, few would easily of readily identify with the passive damsel awaiting her prince’ (Stover, 2013, p.2). Snow White is a stereotypical homemaker, she caters to the dwarfs every need, never complaining and staying obedient. When put under a spell by the evil Queen, Prince Charming must kiss her in order to break the spell and free her from this life. The sa... ... middle of paper ... ... theorists, including historians and scientists, started to analyse women in terms of their appearance and how concepts of femininity had changed over the years. Prior to this era, trends towards contemporary femininity appeared to embody cultural attitudes concerning adult females. It could be argued that as viewpoints in society were changing about women and they were gaining independence and trying to increase equality, that in Sleeping Beauty, Disney were attempting to ‘retain traditional ideals of femininity whilst speaking to a changing generation’ (Stover, C, 2013, p.2). There is a thirty year gap between the release of Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and the next princess film The Little Mermaid in 1989. Thus, there appears to be a correlation of passive princesses during a time of society upheaval and changes for women’s equality and the absence of princess films.

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